Juniors Day 2 and 3

What a roller coaster ride this meet has been.

I will start by saying this, every swimmer here has had at least one monster swim. Some have had several, BUT every swimmer here has had at least one swim that we would have rather left at home. The thing is that Juniors or Nationals or Trials or even state is stressful. It is always interesting to see what happens when the body is ready, but the mind isn't so sure.

The body is usually ready. Tapers are rarely "missed" and when the meet comes it is a matter of execution. Can you execute the plan for a race that you have, hopefully, been working on each day of the season? When you can, good swims follow. However, that ain't always easy. Mike Tyson said "everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth." The question is what do you do then. More often than not, that's when we lose it. That's when we change the plan or go off the deep end. The reality is, however, that the plan is still your best chance to succeed.

The bottom line is this. Athletes are not defined by what they do when things are easy, but what they do when they are bad. You have to practice staying committed to a plan when things are bad. The key to good training is to make your bad days good, because you never know when you may have a bad day. There is a reason great athletes make bad plays in bunches or have cold streaks. Swimming is no different. If you hammer on your bad days and stick to the season plan on a random crappy Wednesday in October, you will stick to the plan when you get hit in the mouth.

Anna
200 free 1:51.01, 1:52.1 relay 100 free 52.0, 100 back 56.21
Siobhan
200 free 1:53.29, 1:51.55 (relay split) 100 free 52.2,
Amanda
100 breast 1:06.6 200 breast 2:23.0
Caroline
100 back 58.6 58.2 ( Time trial) 200 back 2:03.38, 200 free relay split 1:55.99
Kourtney
100 breast 1:04.0 prelims 1:04.22 finals (17th) , 200 breast 2:18.42 (prelims) 200 free split 1:57.5
Rin
100 breast 58.53, 200 breast 2;06.6